Existing topology for local area networks (LANs) typically include Ethernet as a layer 2 protocol and an internet protocol (IP) v4 or v6 as a layer 3 protocol. This layered approach allows computing devices to communicate using a variety of different layer 3 protocols such as IP, IPX, or Appletalk and so on which were available. Likewise, computers could use a single layer 3 protocol such as IPv4/IPv6 to communicate while connected via different layer 2 networks (such as FDDI, TokenRing, ATM, or Ethernet).
The IPv4/IPv6 protocol that are used to establish communication paths at the end nodes (for example, such as ARP/Neighbor Discovery and ICMP) are subject to a variety of spoofing, man-in-the-middle, and denial of service attacks (such as, for example, that may be launched against hosts in the same subnet which is a layer 2 domain), but on the other hand, are blocked by the IPv4/IPv6 forwarding devices such as routers. Furthermore, configuration of routers and tuning the routing protocols is a very involved process.
In addition, typical Ethernet multicast/flooding functions depend on all host devices in the subnet to be attached to the same broadcast domain on an Ethernet LAN or, attached to the same Virtual LAN (VLAN). IPv4 and IPv6 subnet scoped multicast, subnet scoped broadcast traffic make use of layer 2 media (for example, Ethernet) multicast/flooding function. An example of subnet scoped multicast is traffic sent with an IPv4 destination address of 224.0.0.X (where x is any number between 0 and 255). An example of subnet scoped broadcast is traffic sent with IPv4 destination address of 255.255.255.255.